Our kids are now teens, but when they were little, we rarely paid for babysitting thanks to an informal child care swap arrangement with two other trusted families with kids around the same age. Whenever any of us wanted to go out, we’d just ask, and usually one of the other two couples would be available. We didn’t…

This is good to know! I’ve always used my credit card to pay on the spot for no particular reason. I’m glad I unwittingly avoided this extra fee!

I tend to think of small talk as the fee you have to pay for entrance to more meaningful conversation. It’s two people feeling each other out to see if there are grounds there for deepening their connection.

This definitely gave me flashbacks to Michael Scott’s improv class.

“What’s your story?” That’s a pretty open-ended question. I admit I’d be tempted to make up something crazy for fun.

My favorite psychological trick is to make a stronger connection with someone by asking them for help, even if it’s something small, like carrying a package or giving me directions. Similarly, I also like to ask a person I don’t know well to teach me something. People love talking about a subject they are…

This isn’t really a solution, just a comment. We in the west start our workdays too early, in my opinion. A more natural schedule would see us getting up after it’s light and beginning the day more rested at, say, 8:30 or 9am. I’ve tried all the tricks, and getting up at 5am always feels wrong.

I would add one question: Do I want to dust this for the next forty years? It’s amazing how many cute knickknacks don’t pass the test!

After seeing my father-in-law go through shingles, you’ll definitely find me in line for the vaccine.

A good friend’s sister caught the chickenpox as a child. She got a life-threatening fever, and the infection spread to her brain and caused inflammation. After the virus had run its course, she had to relearn how to walk and talk. I’m assuming there was no permanent damage, as she’s a lawyer now. 

I take my travel memory foam neck pillow with me any time I won’t be sleeping in my own bed. It’s like a narrower version of my full size Tempur-pedic neck pillow, and it can be compressed, so it packs nicely. I couldn’t sleep without it.

Congratulations, Carl.

Perhaps it’s just the budding curmudgeon in me, but this feels like losing. And it’s hard to imagine a kid so impaired by short attention span that he can’t pick up a book choosing to consume a whole novel in screen sized bites. How long before a slower or more descriptive passage loses its battle for his attention…

I like the idea of automatically registering 18 year olds. My fear with the incentives, though, is that it will persuade people to vote who didn’t care enough to educate themselves about the ballot, but will vote anyway for financial purposes. That could really twist the results when multiplied over thousands of…

I’ve lived in five states since becoming an adult, and had to present ID to vote in four of them. (The other one was Oregon.) My daughter is eligible to vote this year and doesn’t have a driver’s license. It was pretty quick and easy for her to get an official state ID. Of course, she has a mom who filed and saved her…

I could solve 90% of my chaotic morning issues with one change: going to bed earlier. I can’t seem to do it consistently, despite setting an alarm to remind me to hit the hay. Maybe I should add it as a daily goal on my Streaks app. That little “complete” chime dings my dopamine receptors every time. 

I have a phobia of software updates. And having my name misspelled at Starbucks.

*sigh*  I should have known that whole “sign in with Facebook” thing was too easy to be secure. It’s hard out here for us non-geniuses.

I am one of the few who received a pro-rated refund for my annual subscription. I’m assuming this only affects month-to-month subscribers?

Haha! Definitely not. My point was just that he doesn’t tweak my nose about it or anything. He loves Android for himself, but understands that people have preferences, and no one system is “best”.